My Star From Next Door
by Lucia Rose
Summary: Kagome has just begun her road to independence. After graduating at the top of her class, she's gotten a fancy new job and has just moved into a new apartment in the city. However, things start to get a little complicated when she finds out the identity of her secretive next door neighbor—the insanely famous movie star, Inuyasha!
1. Won't You Be Our Neighbor?

**Disclaimer Note:** I don't own _Inuyasha_, so please don't sue me.

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><p><strong>MY STAR FROM NEXT DOOR<strong>

Part I

Won't You Be Our Neighbor?

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><p>Kagome picks up a box much larger than herself and proceeds to climb the stairs up to the fifth floor, leaving three dumbfounded moving men behind her. They watch in surprise and shock as she bypasses the elevator and moves straight for the stairwell, saying that it would be much faster to move the boxes herself—it would take twice as long to wait for the elevator each trip. She turns when she realizes she is not being followed.<p>

"Fellas?" Her long wavy black hair is tied up in a high ponytail and her brow lined with a sheer layer of sweat. She's wearing sweatpants and a big loose T-shirt, but it doesn't stop any of them from staring at the way her hips swing back and forth as she walks. She is not wearing any makeup, but then again, it's not like she needs it. "Are you coming? Or was hiring you a waste of my time and money?"

Silently, all three men resume their movements and try not to let the strangely strong little woman crush their pride as they pick up boxes much smaller than hers. She lets them know that it's fine if they wish to use the elevator… but are they about to let her outdo them? No. Not at all. They follow her up the steps as she shouts to them that this is really good exercise. She is clearly enjoying the workout; the guys, not so much.

When they arrive at unit 5E, the door isn't closed but also isn't open wide enough to let a person through. Kagome, without missing a beat, kicks the door open, ignoring the loud bang it causes when it swings and hits the wall. She tells the moving guys to put their boxes wherever the label tells them to. At first, they hope that she will take her box into the bedroom and it will turn out to be full of pillows or something.

Instead, she sets it down in the kitchen. The label reveals it is full of dishes and silverware. She says that she has carried the heaviest of the boxes so they should be able to take care of the rest while she unpacks. With ashen looks on their faces, they return to the truck downstairs and continue the process.

A few moments later, there is a knock. Kagome looks up from her place in the kitchen to see two women smiling at her.

"Hey! Great place!" The younger one says, bouncing into the messy apartment with two full plastic bags in her hands. "I've always liked this building. Hey, maybe you can let me know if there's an opening later on?" Her name is Rin, twenty-two years young and an ambitious journalism graduate who is interning at the public relations firm Kagome works at. Rin looks much younger than she is, which could be a good or a bad thing.

"Yeah, this place is so luxurious. There's a big-ass pool, gym, and a spa clinic on the first floor! So, you know I'm going to crash at your place very often, right?" The older one chirps, taking one of the bags from Rin to reveal it is full of takeout—pizza, burgers, fries, and pretty much anything deep-fried in grease. There's nothing like a fattening unhealthy heart-attack-waiting-to-happen meal to finish off moving day. The older woman is Sango, a veteran PR officer who is on the same hiring committee that gave Kagome her new job. Five years older than the twenty-five year old Kagome, Sango serves as a mentor to both younger girls. Though somewhat intimidating at work, Kagome quickly found Sango to be fun loving and easy-going outside the office.

"Haha," Kagome laughs dryly, "you can come over whenever you like, as long as you help me unpack all of this crap." Sango walks around the counter and feeds Kagome a fry before picking up a carefully bubble-wrapped package of porcelain dishes. Rin gets to work on the boxes in the living room, which means she is stuck with assembling Kagome's complicated-looking entertainment unit.

"Don't blame me if this thing suddenly collapses while you're watching late night Netflix marathons," Rin casually throws out, recalling what happened to the photocopying machine at work—she was tasked with refilling the paper tray and somehow it ended up sputtering ink all over the carpet.

Kagome smiles, saying the instruction manual has everything she needs to know. Even so, Rin has trouble differentiating between all of the different types of screws and bolts. Kagome leaves her friends to head into the bedroom to unpack her clothes.

"You know," Sango says after a few moments of silently unpacking Kagome's kitchen stuff. "This is a nice building but your neighbors seem kind of… I don't know, I wouldn't say _creepy_, but… actually no, creepy is the right word."

Kagome pops her head out of the bedroom with a quizzical look, "How do you know about my neighbors?"

"Well, when we were getting out of the elevator," Rin says, having given up on the entertainment unit and resorted to putting up the curtains. "Both of your next-door neighbors were kind of… peeking."

"Peeking?"

"Yeah, their doors were cracked open a little bit and we could see them looking at us and all of your boxes that are in the hallway." Sango recalls, which reminds her to tell the movers to not put the boxes in the hallway—it's a fire hazard.

"That _is_ weird," Kagome mumbles but shrugs after a few pensive moments. "Maybe they're just curious about their new neighbor but are just too shy to say anything. I'll pay them a visit after I'm done unpacking."

"Alright," Rin says, moving the curtains aside to clean the windows. "Just be careful they don't kill you and bury you in a ditch somewhere."

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be working on my entertainment unit?"

"Well yeah, if you want it to end up in pieces that is. I'm sure that isn't what you want, it looks expensive."

"Maybe I can ask my neighbor for help?" Kagome suggests, thinking this would be a good opportunity to draw her neighbors out of their shells. Perhaps they didn't mean to be creepy?

"What? Did you not just hear our story?" Rin groans, wondering how Kagome could always treat their advice by letting it go in one ear and out the other.

"Oh come on, it'd be nice to get to know them. Besides, you girls are here. If they kill me, they'd have to kill you too. Then it would get really messy, it would take too much time—"

"Okay, just go. Do whatever you want, just stop talking about our potential murders like it's regular conversation." Sango purses her lips with disapproval, shaking her head to try and get the morbid images out of her head.

Kagome laughs, before setting down her box knife and heading out the wide open door. She approaches 5D first and knocks cheerily. When she can hear some moving around in there, she announces, "I'm Higurashi Kagome! I just moved in next door and I was wondering if you could give me a hand, if it isn't too much trouble?" She's a bit nervous, considering what she has heard from Rin and Sango but her fears are deflated when the door swings open to reveal a tall good-looking man.

"Well, welcome to the building Higurashi-san!" He booms, his purple eyes sparkling with mischief and his arm automatically reaching out to wrap itself around her shoulders. "My name is Miroku and I would be happy to help you." His smooth voice quickly lowers to something just above a whisper… is he trying to be sexy?

"Uh, yeah," Kagome says, picking his arm off her shoulder like it's some kind of insect. "My friends and I are having trouble assembling my entertainment unit…" She swears his eyes light up when she mentions her friends. They enter her apartment and Miroku introduces himself. It's obvious he's a flirt, judging by the way he looks so happy to be surrounded by girls. Kagome smirks when she notices Sango's gaze linger on Miroku's backside just a little too long.

"Um, I was also thinking of asking 5F for help—" Kagome begins, but suddenly Miroku changes.

"NO!" He leaves Sango's side and runs over to where Kagome is standing in the doorway. "I mean, uh, no… don't do that."

"Why not?" Rin asks, saying it would be much faster for two people to work on the unit. "Besides, it's so big and bulky, you'd have a much easier time if someone's here to help you. I would do it, but my arms have got about as much strength as a pair of twigs."

"Well, you see, uh…" Miroku looks panicked as he rubs the back of his neck, obviously trying to search for some kind of excuse to prevent any of them from seeking out Kagome's other neighbor. "5F is, um, he's real grumpy. He's this really mean old fart who hates all living things, okay? So it's better to just leave him alone."

He gingerly grabs Kagome by the forearm and pushes her in the direction of the bedroom, urging her to continue her work and he will assemble her entertainment system as quickly as he can on his own. However, what Miroku doesn't know is that Kagome, while mature and responsible, could be real stubborn sometimes…

The more he told her not to approach 5F, the more she wanted to do it.

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><p>TBC<p>

LUCIA ROSE

2014/10/26


	2. Curiouser and Curiouser!

**Disclaimer Note:** I don't own _Inuyasha_, so please don't sue me.

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><p><strong>MY STAR FROM NEXT DOOR<strong>

Part II

Curiouser and Curiouser!

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><p>Kagome glances back and forth, checking if anyone is coming down the hallway. All is quiet and she smirks. Casting a quick scan over to 5D, she mentally makes a comment about outsmarting Miroku. Sighing with relief, she reaches out a hand to knock on the door in front of her, the door with "5F" written on it in black shiny letters.<p>

However, just as her closed fist is about to make contact with the wood of the door, a noise surprises her.

_Ding!_

It's the elevator. Kagome swivels her head towards it, narrowing her eyes just in case the person who steps off is the one person she _really_ doesn't want to see right now. The doors open slowly, and it seems like hours go by before the person inside finally steps out.

It's a stranger. He notices her and gives her a strange look when he sees she's staring him down. He continues down the hallway, casting the occasional glance behind him to see if she's still watching.

Kagome rolls her eyes, sighing at how dramatic she's being. Poor guy. She definitely just spooked him. She hears the elevator doors closing and she turns to resume her task… but, as if this were a scene out of a horror movie, a hand clasps the doors right before it closes completely.

"Huhuhu…" She hears a menacing laugh, but instead of being frightened, she merely crosses her arms over her chest and purses her lips. "You thought you could outsmart me, Higurashi-san?" The violet-eyed man pops his head out of the elevator, doing his best to put on an evil expression but all it does is make him look super creepy.

"How do you always do that?!" Kagome stomps her foot, aggravated that it's been a few weeks since she's moved into the building, but every single time she tried to introduce herself to 5F, Miroku had always been there to stop her. He would show up at the right second, scaring the wits out of her and pretending like he was just passing by. Soon, it became a running joke between the two of them—he stopped trying to hide that he was doing it on purpose.

Miroku merely smiles widely at her, before approaching his own apartment and sticking his keys into the door.

"Don't you have a job?" Kagome barks at him, wondering how he had so much time on his hands that he was able to get away with spying on her all the time.

"Of course I do," he says incredulously. "Otherwise how could I afford this wonderful place of mine?" He gestures towards his apartment and opens the door to enter, but not before advising her that 5F wouldn't open the door for her anyway—even if he isn't around to interrupt her efforts.

"Wha—" Kagome turns towards him, "Why not?" He only shrugs and shuts the door, retreating to the solitude of his apartment and leaving a gaping Kagome standing in the hallway.

Once inside, Miroku throws his keys onto the kitchen counter and walks over to the fridge. Opening the door, he scans through his options and notices something is missing. He had bought a six-pack just the night before, but already two are gone. Someone has been drinking his beer. With that thought, he closes the refrigerator door and screams when a tall dark figure is standing there to greet him.

"Shit! You scared me!" His hand shoots to the spot on his chest just over his heart, as if that would calm the frantic beating of it. When he catches his breath, Miroku glares at his friend before pondering out loud: "Wow… didn't think that actually happened in real life."

"It does if it's perfectly planned," his friend smirks, shrugging his head out of the blanket he had wrapped around himself as a shoddy disguise.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Miroku asks, before gasping at the can of beer his friend is holding shamelessly. "Give me that!" He wrestles it carefully away from his visitor.

"Our neighbour is getting pretty persistent, so I thought I'd hide out here for the day." The much taller silver-haired man says, reaching once again for the canned beverage, not noticing the threatening look in Miroku's eyes.

"So you just helped yourself to my fridge?"

"Hey, who pays you?"

"…You do."

"Then technically, _technically_, it's my beer."

"Well, you're just a little bitch, aren't you?"

"Hey! If you had done a better job with that chick out there, then we wouldn't have this problem, would we?!"

Miroku rolls his eyes, mentally telling himself that they argued about this so many times he had lost count. Even to him, they seemed like an old married couple bickering about the same thing for the past twenty years.

"Higurashi-sa—"

"I _told_ you that you should have moved in to that unit when it was empty. Now look at us! We've got a huge problem here. She's like… George!" The visitor throws his hands up in the air, recalling when Miroku said they would be fine even if a new tenant moved in. The previous tenant who lived in 5E was a senile old man, so neither of them had anything to worry about. Now, Kagome Higurashi had moved in and she was as determined as ever to find out the identity of her other neighbour.

"Who the fuck is George?"

"Curious George!"

"…For a movie star, you don't get out much, do you?"

"Shut up. You're my manager, so fix this! Otherwise, I'll drink the rest of that six-pack and not replace it like I always do!" Miroku's client turns around dramatically and stomps back to the empty bedroom, kept unoccupied for times like these. Miroku's eyes light up with realization, recalling all of those times his beer wasn't as cold as it should have been or was a different brand than he remembered buying…

"Alright, that's it. Give me back my key!"

Meanwhile, Kagome retires back to her own unit, sulking on the couch and staring at the carpet rather than at the television that is annoyingly loud and airing a special showing of that new movie everyone's been talking about lately. She has turned up the TV just to annoy Miroku, because she's annoyed with him at the moment as well. Half of her hopes that the entertainment unit would fall apart so she can hold Miroku accountable for it, just out of spite.

Giving up for now, Kagome leaves her TV on to head over to the lobby to see if she's got any mail. Just as she puts on her flats and is about to leave, she reaches for the remote and turns the TV up louder and sticks her tongue out at the wall that divides her unit with Miroku's.

When she leaves and closes the door behind her, she curses when she realizes her TV isn't as loud as she thought it was. She can barely hear it in the hall. Shrugging, she figures she'll get back at him somehow.

What Kagome enjoys about living in an apartment building are the sights and sounds she experiences in the halls. Sometimes when she is walking to the lobby—she always takes the stairs—she can hear the piano player on the fourth floor playing a beautiful rendition of one of her favourite songs, "River Flows in You" by Yiruma. Sometimes on the third floor, she can hear the sounds of a new mother in the stillness of the hallway, singing softly to her infant child. On the second floor, the smell of garlic and butter reach her nostrils and she knows that the chef who lives there is trying out a new recipe again. Finally, when she reaches the lobby, she can smell chocolate, sugar, and cinnamon, which means that Kaede-san is baking her famous cookies again.

Kagome opens the door from the stairwell to the main floor, where she smiles to realize that today is cookie day. Her mood instantly lifts as she practically skips to the mailboxes, scanning the numbers for her own and opens it up with her key.

The sweet smell gets stronger when the door to Kaede-san's unit opens up. Kaede is the landlady of the building, who gave the unit to Kagome at an amazing price because they met at the grocery store, where an employee refused to help Kaede bring her groceries to her car because it "wasn't part of his job description".

Kaede's car was parked at the further end of the parking lot, because it was a Saturday and she had gotten to the store a little later during the day. Kagome, half-wanting to punch the stupid kid in the face for being such a brat, decided she would take up the task herself. Kaede was so thankful that, when she heard Kagome was looking for a new place, she offered up unit 5E at a price that was a friggin' steal.

Kagome lights up when she sees Kaede, partly because of the large plate of freshly baked cookies the old woman is holding, and partly because Kagome saw bits of her grandmother in the landlady. She retrieves her mail and practically slams the mailbox shut, before bouncing her way over to where Kaede is locking her door.

"Do you need any help, Kaede-san?" Kagome tries to hide the fact her entire mouth has filled with saliva at the sight of melted chocolate and the smell of cinnamon.

"Oh, Kagome! How nice to see you. Are you settling in nicely?" Kagome nods and grins when the older woman holds out the plate of cookies, silently offering her one.

"Yes, definitely!" Kagome picks one up off the plate and stares at it for a moment. She wonders if Kaede would be kind enough to give her the recipe. But temptation overwhelms her and she shoves the cookie in her mouth before she even thinks about actually asking for the favour. "Although," Kagome says after swallowing a mouthful, "I've yet to meet one of my neighbours and it's kind of bugging me."

Kaede nods with comprehension, "5F? Yes, he's always been a secretive one. He's lived in this building for almost five years now, but I don't think I've ever seen him since he moved in."

"Really?" Kagome says, unconsciously reaching for another cookie.

"Oh, but he's a good tenant. Nobody has ever complained about him and he always pays his rent a few days in advance." Kaede reaches into the plate and picks up two more cookies before handing it to the younger woman, who thanks her profusely. "I'm surprised you haven't met him yet, though. Have you met 5D? That young man is rather friendly with the man in 5F."

_I thought Miroku said he was a mean old fart? _Kagome ponders. Kaede tells her she's off to deliver some of the cookies to the other residents and Kagome smiles, bidding her good night. Filled with a sense of newfound determination, Kagome practically sprints back up the stairs and arrives in front of 5D. She knocks loudly.

Inside the unit, Miroku's friend is alone. Miroku had gone out to buy more beer, because the visitor had quickly followed through with his promise to finish off the six-pack. However, it wasn't long before both of them realized that Miroku had forgotten his keys.

"Damn it Miroku, you need to—" The door is opened… only it isn't Miroku on the other side. Instead, it is a young woman, who has chocolate smeared on the right side of her mouth (although, he doubts she cares because she has two more chocolate cookies in her hands). Her eyes go wider than saucers and he recognizes her from all of the times she had knocked on _his_ door, while he spied on her through the peephole and waited until she gave up and walked away.

"You…aren't Miroku," she says slowly and he can see that she's searching her brain for where she's seen him before. He panics when her mouth drops open and she points her finger at him, with the hand that is carrying the cookies. "The movie!"

She remembers him from the movie that was playing on her TV earlier, and from several other movies she had seen earlier in the year—movies that nobody could shut up about for _months_ after their release, movies that won Oscars and Academy Awards.

"You're Inuyasha!"

"…Ah, shit."

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><p>TBC<p>

LUCIA ROSE

2015/01/02

**Notes:** I apologize for the severe delay of this chapter. To be honest, this wasn't exactly how I was expecting to reveal Inuyasha's identity, but that's just the way things went. This chapter was also a little bit longer than I had planned, but I don't think anyone's complaining. I will try my best to update more often from now on! Please leave your comments; any constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated.


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